Around same timeframe as sixth-gen LTE iPhone
The industry insiders claim that Google's Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich-powered smartphones will finally begin to proliferate in the second quarter this year (April through June). Unfortunately, smartphones running Android 4.0 only comprise 2 - 3 percent of all Android devices worldwide, and Google's own online version tracker puts this number at just 1.6-percent.
Data source: Android Developers Blog
Data source: Android Developers Blog
Following a report that stated Google’s next major Android updated could launch as early as the second quarter this year, the Internet giant is now said to be prepping Android 5.0 Jelly Bean for a third-quarter release.DigiTimes cited unnamed industry sources on Thursday in claiming Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich-powered smartphones will finally begin to proliferate in the second quarter this year. Read on for more.
After a slow start, Google’s latest OS will soon launch on handsets from Samsung, HTC, Sony and a number of other phone vendors. HTC has already announced its first three Android 4.0 phones — the One X, One S andOne V — and Sony announced a pair of devices that will be released with Gingerbread but will be updated to Ice Cream Sandwich soon after launch. Samsung is expected to unveil the Android 4.0-powered Galaxy S III in April or May.
Then, just a few short months later in the third quarter, DigiTimes claims Google will unveil its next major OS build, Android 5.0 Jelly Bean. “The rapid shift of OS may not be healthy for the development of the Android ecosystem,” according to the site’s anonymous sources.
Ice Cream Sandwich is currently found on between 2% and 3% of Android smartphones according to DigiTimes, though Google’s own online version tracker puts the figure at just 1.6%.
Nevertheless, the sources expect Google will unveil Android 5.0 Jelly Bean a few months after summer, probably around the same time that Apple decides to launch its sixth-generation 4G LTE iPhone. However, “the rapid shift of OS may not be healthy for the development of the Android ecosystem,” according to the sources. Considering Google's little fiasco with fragmentation within its own flagship Nexus S updates, we can't help but agree.
Google I/O is coming up in June, and there's no doubt that the company will use this to speak on their next-generation operating system. Android 4.0 is still rolling out to devices, so who knows how Android 5.0 is going to play into things. But according to reports, 5.0 won't even start hitting the earliest of devices until Q3 2012. That still gives quite a few months to get v4.0 to dozens upon dozens of Android devices that are still on v2.x. Reportedly, "Android Jelly Bean" will be detailed at Google I/O, but there aren't too many details just yet on what changes it will bring. This whole announcement brings new light to the much-talked about "fragmentation" problem that Google faces.
ICS has been out for months, but even flagship Android phones like the Galaxy S II don't have ICS in much of the world. Hopefully, Google will take a stand and start pushing OEM partners to update faster, but if history is proof, we sort of doubt they'll poke and prod the cash cows too much.
Posts
